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World Health Organization - Wikipedia,

World Health Organization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization, which was an agency of the League of Nations.[1] It is a member of the UNDG.[2]

World Health Organization

Organisation mondiale de la S ant Organizacin Mundial de la S alud

Contents
1 Constitution and history 1.1 Activities 2 Structure 2.1 Regional offices 2.2 WHO liaison and other offices 3 People 3.1 Other 3.2 Staffing 4 Controversies 4.1 IAEA - Agreement WHA 12-40 4.2 Condoms and the Roman Catholic Church 4.3 Intermittent Preventive Therapy 5 See also 6 References 7 External links
Flag of the World Health Organization Org type Acronyms Head Status Established Specialized agency of the United Nations WHO Dr. Margaret Chan Active 7 April 1948

Headquarters Geneva, Switzerland Website Parent org who.int (http://www.who.int) ECOSOC

Constitution and history

The WHO's constitution states that its objective "is the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health."[3] The flag features the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol for healing. The World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the original agencies of the United Nations, its constitution formally coming into force on the first World Health Day, (7 April 1948), when it was ratified by the 26th member state. Jawaharlal Nehru, a major freedom fighter of India had given an opinion to start WHO.[4] Prior to this its operations, as well as the remaining activities of the League of Nations Health Organization, were under the control of an Interim Commission following an International Health Conference in the summer of 1946.[5] The transfer was
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authorized by a Resolution of the General Assembly.[6] The epidemiological service of the French Office International d'Hygine Publique was incorporated into the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization on 1 January 1947.[7]

Activities
Apart from coordinating international efforts to control outbreaks of infectious disease, such as SARS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, and HIV/AIDS, the WHO also sponsors programmes to prevent and treat such diseases. The WHO supports the development and distribution of safe and effective vaccines, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and drugs. After over two decades of fighting smallpox, the WHO declared in 1980, that the disease had been eradicated the first disease in history to be eliminated by human effort. The WHO aims to eradicate polio within the next few years. The organization develops and promotes the use of evidence-based tools, norms and standards to support Member States to inform health policy options. It regularly publishes a World Health Report including an expert assessment of a specific global health topic. The organization has published tools for monitoring the capacity of national health systems[8] and health workforces[9] to meet population health needs, and endorsed the world's first official HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Zimbabwe (from 3 October 2006), making it an international standard. In addition, the WHO carries out various health-related campaigns for example, to boost the consumption of fruits and vegetables worldwide and to discourage tobacco use. The organization relies on the expertise and experience of many world-renowned scientists and professionals to inform its work. Experts met at the WHO headquarters in Geneva in February 2007, and reported that their work on pandemic influenza vaccine development had achieved encouraging progress. More than 40 clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing. Most have focused on healthy adults. Some companies, after completing safety analysis in adults, have initiated clinical trials in the elderly and in children. All vacciness so far appear to be safe and well-tolerated in all age groups tested. The WHO also promotes the development of capacities in Member States to use and produce research that addresses national needs, by bolstering national health research systems and promoting knowledge translation platforms such as the Evidence Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet). WHO and its regional offices are working to develop regional policies on research for health - the first one being the Pan American Health Organization/Regional Office for the Americas (PAHO/AMRO) that had its Policy on Research for Health approved in September 2009 by its 49th Directing Council Document CD 49.10. WHO also conducts health research in communicable diseases, non-communicable conditions and injuries; for example, longitudinal studies on ageing to determine if the additional years we live are in good or poor health, and, whether the electromagnetic field surrounding cell phones has an impact on health. Some of this work can be controversial, as illustrated by the April 2003, joint WHO/FAO report, which recommended that sugar should form no more than 10% of a healthy diet. This report led to lobbying by the sugar industry against the recommendation, to which the WHO/FAO responded by including in the report the statement "The Consultation recognized that a population goal for free sugars of less than 10% of total energy is controversial", but also stood by its recommendation based upon its own analysis of scientific studies. The World Health Organization's suite of health studies is working to provide the needed health and well-being evidence through a variety of data collection platforms, including the World Health Survey covering 308,000 respondents aged 18+ years and 81,000 aged 50+ years from 70 countries and the Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) covering over 50,000 persons aged 50+ across almost 23 countries. The World Mental
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Health Surveys, WHO Quality of Life Instrument, WHO Disability Assessment Scales provide guidance for data collection in other health and health-related areas. Collaborative efforts between WHO and other agencies, such as the Health Metrics Network and the International Household Surveys Network, serve the normative functions of setting high research standards. WHO has also worked on global initiatives in surgery such as the Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care[10] and the Guidelines for Essential Trauma Care[11] focussed on access and quality. Safe Surgery Saves Lives[12] addresses the safety of surgical care. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist is in current use worldwide in the effort to improve safety in surgical patients.

Structure
Members of the WHO are 191 of the UN members, the Cook Islands and Niue. Non-state territories of UN Member States may join as Associate Members (with full information but limited participation and voting rights) if approved by an Assembly vote: Puerto Rico and Tokelau are Associate Members.[13] The following states and entities were granted observer status: Palestine[14] (a UN observer), Holy See[15] (UN observer), Order of Malta[15] (UN observer) and Chinese Taipei[16] (UN observer). Non-members of the WHO are Liechtenstein and the rest of states with limited diplomatic recognition.
World Health Organization: member states associate member territories observers invited delegations

WHO Member States appoint delegations to the World Health Assembly, WHO's supreme decision-making body. All UN member states are eligible for WHO membership, and, according to the WHO web site, Other countries may be admitted as members when their application has been approved by a simple majority vote of the World Health Assembly. The WHO Assembly generally meets in May each year. In addition WHO Headquarters in Geneva to appointing the Director-General every five years, the Assembly considers the financial policies of the Organization and reviews and approves the proposed programme budget. The Assembly elects 34 members, technically qualified in the field of health, to the Executive Board for three-year terms. The main functions of the Board are to carry out the decisions and policies of the Assembly, to advise it and to facilitate its work in general. The WHO is financed by contributions from member states and donors. In recent years, the WHO's work has involved increasing collaboration with external bodies; there are currently around 80 partnerships ("official relations" and "working relations")[15] with NGOs and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as with foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Voluntary contributions to the WHO from national and local governments, foundations and NGOs, other UN organizations, and the private sector, now exceed that of
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assessed contributions (dues) from the 193 member nations.[17]PDF (30.1 KB) In addition to the observer states and entities listed above the UN observer organizations ICRC and IFRCRCS have entered into "official relations" with the WHO and are invited as observers. In the World Health Assembly they are seated along the other NGOs.[15]

Regional offices
Uncharacteristically for a UN Agency, the six Regional Offices of the WHO enjoy remarkable autonomy. Each Regional Office is headed by a Regional Director (RD), who is elected by the Regional Committee for a once-renewable five-year term. The name of the RD-elect is transmitted to the WHO Executive Board in Geneva, which proceeds to confirm the appointment. It is rare that an elected Regional Director is not confirmed. Each Regional Committee of the WHO consists of all the Health Department heads, in all the governments of the countries that constitute the Region. Aside from electing the Regional Director, the Regional Committee is also in charge of setting the guidelines for the implementation, within the region, of the Health and other policies adopted by the World Health Assembly. The Regional Committee also serves as a progress review board for the actions of the WHO within the Region. The Regional Director is effectively the head of the WHO for his or her Region. The RD manages and/or supervises a staff of health and other experts at the regional headquarters and in specialized centres. The RD is also the direct supervising authorityconcomitantly with the WHO Director Generalof all the heads of WHO country offices, known as WHO Representatives, within the Region. The Regional Offices are: Regional Office for Africa (AFRO (http://www.afro.who.int) )I, with headquarters in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. AFRO includes most of Africa, with the exception of Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya, Somalia and Morocco, which belong to EMRO.[18] Regional Office for Europe (EURO (http://www.euro.who.int) ), with headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Regional Office for South East Asia (SEARO (http://www.searo.who.int) ), with headquarters in New Delhi, India. North Korea is served by SEARO. Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO (http://www.emro.who.int) ), with headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. EMRO includes the countries of Africa, and particularly in the Maghreb, that are not included in AFRO, as well as the countries of the Middle East, except for Israel. Pakistan is served by EMRO. Regional Office for Western Pacific (WPRO (http://www.wpro.who.int) ), with headquarters in Manila, Philippines. WPRO covers all the Asian countries not served by SEARO and EMRO, and all the countries in Oceania. South Korea is served by WPRO. Regional Office for the Americas (AMRO (http://www.paho.org) ), with headquarters in Washington, D.C.,
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Regional offices and regions of the WHO: Africa; HQ: Brazzaville, Congo Americas; HQ: Washington, D.C., USA Eastern Med.; HQ: Cairo, Egypt Europe; HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark South East Asia; HQ: New Delhi, India Western Pacific; HQ: Manila, Philippines

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USA. It is better known as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Since it predates the establishment of WHO, PAHO is by far the most autonomous of the 6 regional offices.

WHO liaison and other offices

WHO has a number of specialist offices/agencies, as well as liaison offices at the most important international institutions.[19] IARC, International Agency for Research on Cancer (Lyon, France) WHO Centre for Health Development WHO Kobe Center (Kobe, Japan) WHO Lyon Office for National Epidemic Preparedness and Response (LYO) (Lyon, France) WHO Mediterranean Centre for Vulnerability Reduction (Tunisia) WHO Office at the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) WHO Liaison Office in Washington (USA) WHO Office at the European Union (Brussels, Belgium) WHO Office at the United Nations (New York, USA) WHO Office at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (Washington, USA) Apart from coordinating international efforts to control outbreaks of infectious disease, such as SARS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, and HIV/AIDS, the WHO also sponsors programmes to prevent and treat such diseases. The WHO supports the development and distribution of safe and effective vaccines, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and drugs. After over two decades of fighting smallpox, the WHO declared in 1980, that the disease had been eradicated the first disease in history to be eliminated by human effort. The WHO aims to eradicate polio within the next few years. The organization develops and promotes the use of evidence-based tools, norms and standards to support Member States to inform health policy options. It regularly publishes a World Health Report including an expert assessment of a specific global health topic. The organization has published tools for monitoring the capacity of national health systems[7] and health workforces[8] to meet population health needs, and endorsed the world's first official HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Zimbabwe (from 3 October 2006), making it an international standard. In addition, the WHO carries out various health-related campaigns for example, to boost the consumption of fruits and vegetables worldwide and to discourage tobacco use. The organization relies on the expertise and experience of many world-renowned scientists and professionals to inform its work. Experts met at the WHO headquarters in Geneva in February 2007, and reported that their work on pandemic influenza vaccine development had achieved encouraging progress. More than 40 clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing. Most have focused on healthy adults. Some companies, after completing safety analysis in adults, have initiated clinical trials in the elderly and in children. All vacciness so far appear to be safe and well-tolerated in all age groups tested. The WHO also promotes the development of capacities in Member States to use and produce research that addresses national needs, by bolstering national health research systems and promoting knowledge translation platforms such as the Evidence Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet). WHO and its regional offices are working to develop regional policies on research for health - the first one being the Pan American Health Organization/Regional Office for the Americas (PAHO/AMRO) that had its Policy on Research for Health approved in September 2009 by its 49th Directing Council Document CD 49.10. WHO also conducts health research in communicable diseases, noncommunicable conditions and injuries; for example, longitudinal studies on ageing to determine if the additional years we live are in good or poor health, and, whether the electromagnetic field surrounding cell phones has an impact on health. Some of this work can be controversial, as illustrated by the April 2003, joint WHO/FAO report, which recommended that sugar should form no more than 10% of a healthy diet. This report led to lobbying by the sugar industry against the recommendation, to which the WHO/FAO responded by including in the report the statement "The Consultation recognized that a population goal for free sugars of less than 10% of total energy is
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controversial", but also stood by its recommendation based upon its own analysis of scientific studies. The World Health Organization's suite of health studies is working to provide the needed health and well-being evidence through a variety of data collection platforms, including the World Health Survey covering 308,000 respondents aged 18+ years and 81,000 aged 50+ years from 70 countries and the Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) covering over 50,000 persons aged 50+ across almost 23 countries. The World Mental Health Surveys, WHO Quality of Life Instrument, WHO Disability Assessment Scales provide guidance for data collection in other health and health-related areas. Collaborative efforts between WHO and other agencies, such as the Health Metrics Network and the International Household Surveys Network, serve the normative functions of setting high research standards. WHO has also worked on global initiatives in surgery such as the Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care[9] and the Guidelines for Essential Trauma Care[10] focussed on access and quality. Safe Surgery Saves Lives[11] addresses the safety of surgical care. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist is in current use worldwide in the effort to improve safety in surgical patients. [edit]

People
Other
Nancy Brinker was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control by Director-General Margaret Chan on 26 May 2009.

Staffing
The World Health Organization is an agency of the United Nations and as such shares a core of common personnel policy with other agencies. The World Health Organization has recently banned the recruitment of cigarette smokers (http://www.who.int/employment/recruitment/en/) , to promote the principle of a tobacco-free work environment.The World Health Organization(WHO) successfully rallied 168 countries to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003.[20] The Convention is designed to push for effective legislation and its enforcement in all countries to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco. On 28 August 2005, the National Peoples Congress of China signed the Convention.

Controversies
IAEA - Agreement WHA 12-40
In 1959, the WHO signed Agreement WHA 12-40 with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which some have claimed prevents the WHO from independently researching the effects on human health of radiations caused by the use of nuclear power, for examples after nuclear disasters. The agreement states - specifically in Article 1, Paragraph 2 that the WHO recognises the IAEA as having responsibility for peaceful nuclear energy without prejudice to the roles of the WHO of promoting health. However, the following paragraph adds: "Whenever either organization proposes to initiate a programme or activity on a subject in which the other organization has or may have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by
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World Health Organization - Wikipedia, other with a view to adjusting the matter by Demonstration on Chernobyl disaster [21] This last statement, which stresses the requirement day near WHO in Geneva mutual agreement." for mutual agreement, has led some observers to question whether this effectively jeopardizes the WHO's independence when assessing matters relating to nuclear power.[22][23]

Condoms and the Roman Catholic Church

Main article: Roman Catholic Church and AIDS In 2003, the WHO denounced the Roman Curia's health department, saying: "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."[24]

Intermittent Preventive Therapy

The aggressive support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for intermittent preventive therapy of malaria which included the commissioning a report from the Institute of Medicine triggered a memo from the former WHO malaria chief Dr. Akira Kochi.[25] Dr. Kochi wrote, although it was less and less straightforward that the health agency should recommend IPTi, the agencys objections were met with intense and aggressive opposition from Gatesbacked scientists and the foundation.

See also
Global health High 5 Project World Health Day World Health Report Alliance for Healthy Cities Health Sciences Online a virtual learning resources center from the WHO Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Open Learning for Development

References
1. ^ League of Nations: Health Organization http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/chronicles/health_org_1931.pdf 2. ^ http://www.undg.org/index.cfm?P=13 3. ^ "Constitution of the World Health Organization" (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/official_records/constitution.pdf) (PDF). World Health Organization. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/official_records/constitution.pdf. Retrieved 18 July 2007. For an easier to read version see "Constitution of the World Health Organization (English only version)" (http://www.who.int/entity/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf) (PDF). World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/entity/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf. Retrieved 11 February 2008. 4. ^ "Chronicle of the World Health Organization, April 1948" (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/chronicles/chronicle_1948.pdf) (PDF). World Health Organization. pp. 54. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/chronicles/chronicle_1948.pdf. Retrieved 18 July 2007. 5. ^ "Chronicle of the World Health Organization, 1947" (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/chronicles/chronicle_1947.pdf) (PDF). http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/chronicles/chronicle_1947.pdf. Retrieved 18 July 2007. 6. ^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61 session 1 Establishment of the World Health Organization
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(http://www.undemocracy.com/A-RES-61(I)) on 14 December 1946 7. ^ Iriye, Akira (2002). Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 052023179. 8. ^ Monitoring the building blocks of health systems: a handbook of indicators and their measurement strategies. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2010 http://www.who.int/healthinfo/systems/monitoring/en/index.html 9. ^ Handbook on monitoring and evaluation of human resources for health. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2009 http://www.who.int/hrh/resources/handbook/en/index.html 10. ^ http://www.who.int/surgery/globalinitiative/en/ 11. ^ http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/services/traumacare/en/ 12. ^ http://www.who.int/patientsafety/safesurgery/en/ 13. ^ "Appendix 1, Members of the World Health Organization (at 31 May 2009)" (http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/members-en.pdf) . World Health Organization. http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/members-en.pdf. Retrieved 18 November 2010. 14. ^ WHO Palestine status (http://apps.who.int/gb/archive/pdf_files/WHA53/ea40.pdf) 15. ^ a b c d World Health Organization By Gian Luca Burci, Claude-Henri Vignes (http://books.google.com/books? id=Xou_nD9jJF0C) 16. ^ Taiwan Today, Taiwan delegation to participate in WHA (http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp? xitem=103148&ctnode=427&mp=9) : "The 15-member delegation will participate in the WHA as an observer under the name Chinese Taipei." 17. ^ http://ftp.who.int/gb/pdf_files/EB105/ee17a1.pdf 18. ^ Ahmad S. Teebi, Genetic Disorders Among Arab Populations, (Springer: 2010), p.69. 19. ^ WHO liaison and other offices (http://www.who.int/about/who_offices/en/index.html) . 20. ^ http://www.who.int/fctc/en/index.html 21. ^ World Health Organization. "Agreements with Other Intergovernmental Organizations" (http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/BDenglish/Agreements.pdf) . http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/BDenglish/Agreements.pdf. Retrieved 19 April 2011. ^ Independence for WHO. "Appeal by health professionals for independence of the World Health Organization" 22. (http://www.ippnw-europe.org/commonFiles/pdfs/Atomenergie/appeal_healthprofessionals.pdf) . http://www.ippnw-europe.org/commonFiles/pdfs/Atomenergie/appeal_healthprofessionals.pdf. Retrieved 19 April 2011. 23. ^ Women in Europe for a Common Future. "Open letter on the WHO/IAEA Agreement of 1959" (http://www.wecf.eu/download/2010/04/letterIAEA-WHO.pdf) . http://www.wecf.eu/download/2010/04/letterIAEA-WHO.pdf. Retrieved 19 April 2011. 24. ^ Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/09/aids) 25. ^ New York Times, 16 February 2008 Gates Foundations Influence Criticized By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/science/16malaria.html)

External links
World Health Organization (http://www.who.int) Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) (http://www.who.int/wer/en/) Multi-country Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization" Categories: World Health Organization | Medical and health organizations | Organizations established in 1948 | Organisations based in Geneva | Global health | United Nations specialized agencies | Public health organizations This page was last modified on 15 May 2011 at 21:35. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
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